Is a report about a fake blog published on a separate fake blog the equivalent of hearsay within hearsay? The blog "The Right Honorable Samuel A. Alito, Jr." offers a post titled "Don't Cry for A3G, Argentina."

Meanwhile, one of my readers emails:

I see that you are closely following the David Lat story and I thought I'd pass on the following thoughts (since I don't blog myself -- for professional reasons ;)): David and I were colleagues and close friends at WLRK during his "thousands and thousands" of hours there. (I sometimes think I may have mentored him right out of private practice during a particularly gruesome privilege log experience).

Like many many ambitious young lawyers, David has always had two competing sides: The devoted and fascinated lawyer side (fortified by a desire to live up to familial expectations (he's the son of Filipino immigrants) and by a philosophically conservative streak) and a flamboyant creative side that led him to take film/theater classes (as a WLRK associate - no mean feat!) and fantasize about life in the entertainment world. When he quit WLRK, I thought the creative side might win out, but then I decided (wrongly!) that the more-conformist side had triumphed when he ended up taking the AUSA post. Anyone who has worked late nights with David knows that A3G is the best of David's creative side -- even at WLRK, he kept us all in stitches with breathless speculation about "litigatrixes" of our acquaintance and rhapsodies about Prada shoes.

Friends who've spoken with him in the last few days say 1) that David's "outing" was totally voluntarily and 2) that he'd never broached the subject with his superiors before yesterday afternoon. I hope this means that David has found a way to reconcile the two wonderful sides to his personality. It couldn't happen to a nicer, funnier or smarter guy.

Like many women, I never (even before I knew for sure) believed A3G as a woman (or as a law firm associate -- who has time for that?). However, I never found it "icky," and am a bit taken aback by those who do. A3G and David share a strongly camp sense of humor (I'm NOT saying David's gay! I've never asked him) that is firmly rooted in show-biz tradition. If you think of A3G as a fantastic performance, I think it all makes sense (and doesn't seem icky at all).

Anyway, I doubt any of this is useful to you in your quest for hard news, but you may quote me as a former colleague of Lat's and a former WLRK-er, although I'd prefer if you didn't use my name

Someone who has known David Lat for more than ten years emails: "I had no idea of his parallel life as A3G, and as someone who's fed some recent items to UTR, the idea that it was really Dave on the other end of the computer is kind of weirding me out. (No, I didn't hit on 'her' or anything -- thank goodness!) I haven't talked to him since he outed himself, and have no idea why he decided to do so, or of what his boss thinks. I imagine that the powers-that-be in the U.S. Attorney's Office can't be too pleased, however." I've also received word of a David Lat sighting at the Federalist Society's annual conference last weekend in Washington, DC. And the blog "T&A" offers a post titled "Tom Cruise, A3G, and the value of not showing too much."Posted at 03:38 PM by Howard Bashman

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

"High court rules on Columbine case": The Denver Post provides a news update that begins, "The Colorado Supreme Court today agreed with The Denver Post that items seized from the homes of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold are criminal justice records, which clears the way for their release if Jefferson County Sheriff Ted Mink determines the release would benefit the public."

"Courts hears challenge to minimum federal sentences": The Rocky Mountain News provides an update that begins, "Three judges of the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments Tuesday over a 55-year prison sentence imposed on a Salt Lake City man, a first offender, for selling small amounts of marijuana and having guns."Posted at 03:28 PM by Howard Bashman

When I was in Monterey, California a couple of weekends ago, one of the U.S. District Judges in attendance asked me, with evident curiosity, whether I thought that Judge Kozinski could be the author of the "UTR" blog. Fortunately, my hunch in answering that question proved correct.Posted at 02:40 PM by Howard Bashman

I write the blog "How Appealing" hosted by Legal Affairs magazine. Was David Lat at work yesterday, and were you able to draw any conclusion for why his site "Underneath Their Robes" went off-line late yesterday. E.g., do you think it was at the instruction of his employer, the USDOJ? And did Mr. Lat suggest that he was planning to leave his job with the federal government and do something else? Also, did you ask him whether it was his decision to go public as the site's author or was he going to be outed whether he participated or not?

And Ms. Klein responded as follows:

I did reach David Lat at work around 4 p.m. yesterday, but the only things he said to me I put in the story (that he would have to check with his employer, and then that he would not comment). Shortly after he refused to comment, the site went offline -- I don't know if that was at the instruction of the USAO or whether Lat made that decision himself.

I didn't get a chance to ask him any of the other questions you pose (although I would have liked to).

You may recall that that back on September 1, 2004, your blog carried an item about an ABAJ interview with me in which I had said that I thought A3G was male. So I feel vindicated. I also think that the disclosure will ruin Underneath Their Robes, because the hyperfeminine shtick is too discordant with the known male identity of the blogger.

I thank Judge Posner for his very prompt response to my inquiry, and the post of mine from September 2004 to which I think he's referring can be accessed here.Posted at 11:25 AM by Howard Bashman

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

My email interview with Jeffrey Toobin of The New Yorker: Following-up further on yesterday's breaking news, I conducted an email interview this morning with Jeffrey Toobin, whose Talk of the Town essay posted online yesterday revealed that "In real life, A3G is a thirty-year-old Newark-based assistant U.S. attorney named David Lat."

The questions were posed by me, and the answers were supplied by Mr. Toobin:

Q. Was it David Lat's decision to go public, or did you plan to reveal his identity whether he cooperated or not?

A. This was entirely David's decision. I actually met with him once, and we had a discussion about whether he should reveal himself. He then decided to go ahead, and we had a formal, on the record interview on another occasion.

Q. If it was David's decision, why now?

A. He addresses that issue in my piece, and I take his answer at face value.

Q. Had David Lat previously disclosed to his bosses in the Newark, NJ U.S. Attorney's Office that he was the author of the UTR site, and if so when?

A. I don't know.

Q. If not, what reaction did David expect the USDOJ to have, and did he expect the news to cause his employer to demand that UTR be taken off-line or that David stop working for the USDOJ?

A. I don't know.

Q. What happened yesterday that caused David to take UTR off-line (if you know)?

A. I don't know. I have emailed him and asked him, but I haven't heard back.

Q. What are David's plans for the future?

A. I don't know.

Q. As a journalist, do you think it is appropriate for a USDOJ attorney to be the anonymous author of the UTR site?

"Where is David Lat?" At "The Right Coast" blog, Law Professor Thomas A. Smith has this post. I'm in the midst of doing some original reporting myself (perish the thought!).

For now, I reprint in full the first email I received from Article III Groupie at 12:03 a.m. on June 10, 2004:

Dear Mr. Bashman:

I have been a loyal reader for many months of your wonderful blog, which I visit several times a day, and which I have shared with many friends and colleagues. It is a superb resource, and I'm grateful to you for what must be the many hours you put into maintaining it each day.

Inspired by your efforts and those of many other "blawg" creators, I have started a blog of my own, "Underneath Their Robes," located at http://underneaththeirrobes.blogs.com/main/. Here is a brief squib about my blog, which I think carves out a fairly unique niche among blawgs:

"Underneath Their Robes" ("UTR") is a combination of People, US Weekly, Page Six, The National Enquirer, and Tigerbeat, focused not on vacuous movie stars or fatuous teen idols, but on the federal judiciary. The mission of UTR is to get 'underneath the robes' of our federal judges, to find out what they are really like--not as impersonal guardians of the Constitution, or as disembodied legal minds analyzing complex legal disputes, but as human beings. After all, federal judges are people too, with unique personalities, private lives, and peccadilloes, all just waiting to be explored."

If you might have the time--and I completely understand if you don't, between maintaining "How Appealing" and your busy appellate practice--I would be most grateful if you might take a quick peek at my blog. I hope you will find it interesting and even amusing. It is, as blawgs go, fairly lighthearted and frivolous; I focus on the personalities, leaving the heavy lifting of legal analysis to others. My latest post, "Fili-BUSTED!", is a comparative analysis of Justice Janice Rogers Brown, Judge Carolyn B. Kuhl, and Justice Priscilla Owen, as "judicial divas."

If you do happen to find my site interesting, I would be eternally grateful if you might briefly mention it on "How Appealing." I am eager to increase traffic to my blog, and even the most fleeting reference on your site--the premier legal blogspot, with thousands of visitors each day--would work untold wonders for my humble site.

Once again, thank you so much for all of your wonderful work! "How Appealing" is a real treasure, and your devotion to it is a great public service to the legal community.

"Justices to Hear Prison Case Alito Ruled On; As an appellate judge, the high court nominee sided against inmates and with state officials": David G. Savage has this article today in The Los Angeles Times.

The Hill on Tuesday will contain an article headlined "GOP focus on war powers" that begins, "Some Republican senators say they will use the Supreme Court nomination of Samuel Alito to stake out the limits of President Bush's power to conduct the war on terrorism as public concern over the administration's handling of the war is growing and congressional leaders are being criticized for lack of oversight."

"Senators Reach Gitmo Detainees Compromise": The Associated Press provides a report that begins, "A bipartisan group of senators reached a compromise Monday that would allow detainees at Guantanamo Bay to appeal the rulings of military tribunals to the federal courts."Posted at 10:30 PM by Howard Bashman

"Fla. Federal Judges Slammed for Secret Docketing; Judges have been reprimanded by 11th Circuit for hiding cases -- but is the practice continuing?" law.com provides this report.Posted at 10:10 PM by Howard Bashman

If anyone can email to me the text of the referenced post, which doesn't appear to have been picked up by Bloglines but which should still remain in your web browser's cache if you viewed it before "UTR" went offline, I'd be most appreciative.

Update: According to a reader, "The text of A3G's final post was simply 'This blog has been taken offline.' It was up for less than an hour before the password prompt replaced it. A sad day in the blawgosphere if you ask me." Indeed.Posted at 08:12 PM by Howard Bashman

Monday, November 14, 2005

Get me some of that Google cache: A reader emails to note that the "Underneath Their Robes" site now appears to be "password protected." But by clicking "cancel" on the password prompt for the Goolge cached page, you can access the site sans today's interesting post. Update: The very same reader helpfully follows-up that today's post can still be accessed at this link via Bloglines.Posted at 05:44 PM by Howard Bashman